Many African countries are being governed from foreign hospitals as ailing rulers seek medical treatment abroad while holding firmly to power at home.
President Buhari of Nigeria, 74, has been treated for an unknown condition in London. He has spent only 78 days in Nigeria this year and has only just returned home.  He was thought to be at the Princess Grace Hospital, near Harley Street. While he was away protesters demanded that he returned to break the inertia that has plagued his administration since he took power in 2015. He refused to delegate fully to his acting president, Yemi Osinbajo. The presidential jet was on standby for months so Mr Osinbajo could fly to London to consult him.
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The opposition in Zimbabwe accused President Mugabe of ''running the show from his hospital bed'' after trips to Singapore for what officials said were routine health checks.  Mr Mugabe, 93, has said that he wants to live to 100 and rule for life and his wife, Grace, says he should run ''as a corpse'' if he dies before the next election.
He spent more than £39 million on travel abroad last year, double the sum spent on upgrading his country's hospitals.  His spokesman defended his travel by saying that his doctor in Singapore was ''not only Zimbabwean, he is actually black.  He is very, very, very black.''
President Dos Santos, 74, who has ruled Angola for 38 years, recently returned home after a prolonged spell in Spain for an unknown ailment.
President Bouteflika of Algeria, 80, has barely been seen since suffering a stroke in 2013.  He is frequently treated in France and a quiet power struggle has begun over his succession.
President Talon of Benin, 59, had operations on his prostate and digestive system in Paris this summer.
One of the few leaders to have sought treatment in his own country is President al-Bashir of Sudan, 73.  In January, he had an exploratory cardiac catheterisation in Khartoum.  As the only sitting head of state who is the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, he would have risked extradition to the Hague had he travelled abroad.
(The Times, London)